Wayne Brady just shared a heartwarming update a year after coming out as pansexual
Wayne Brady says coming out was “not the biggest thing that’s happened in my life.” (Cindy Ord/Getty)
A year on from coming out as pansexual, Wayne Brady has shared a heartwarming and positive update about his experiences and the acceptance he’s been met with, explaining “not a lot has changed.”
The 52-year-old television host and comedian has also shared he is feeling “happy I can just be free”.
Wayne Brady was in attendance at the Wayne Brady: The Family Remix event launching his reality show. The star is best known for hosting the CBS game show Let’s Make a Deal and for his role as James Stinson in the hit US sitcom How I Met Your Mother.
Wayne Brady: The Family Remix is an intimate entry into Brady’s blended family’s personal life with ex-wife Mandie Taketa (and Taketa’s partner, Jason Michael Fordham, who was also one of Brady’s former backup dancers) as they co-parent their 21-year-old daughter.
The show explores their untraditional points of view and values about togetherness.
Speaking to People on Monday (22 July), the pansexual celebrity noted: “Coming out was for me, so I didn’t expect any grand… It wasn’t a transformation, it isn’t like the end of… No, thank you.”
“It’s not like Beauty and the Beast where all of a sudden you’re whipped and changed. The change is internal and it’s a great change to feel.
“It’s not the biggest thing that’s happened in my life. It’s one of the sweetest things that’s happened in my life, and that’s why I think it’s good,” he added.
Brady speaks about his coming out through a grounded perspective where his sexuality isn’t a solely defining factor of his identity: “I don’t walk around every day going, ‘Look at this difference, look at this change.’
“It’s normal, which everyone should be allowed to just have your baseline be whatever your happy is.
“And my happy is I can just be free, and do what I want to, when I want to do it, and with whomever. That’s the cool part.”
In August 2023, Wayne Brady posted a TikTok of him lip-syncing to Celine Dion’s “It’s All Coming Back To Me Now”, while wearing a wig and dancing under rainbow confetti.
The caption reads: “In doing my work, I’ve come to see a few truths, one of them being that I want to be free to love whomever I want.
“This truth makes me Pan[sexual] and part of the LGBTQ+ family. It’s scary as hell to say out loud but here it is.”
Soon after his announcement, Brady said that he had discovered a newfound freedom and that he no longer has to ‘hide’ parts of himself.
As he’s on his self-loving pansexual journey, Brady has taken the time to give back love to the LGBTQ+ community.
He shared that he is still close to his high school drama teacher who gave him an invaluable life lesson when he reflected on the idea of queerness.
When someone commented on his looks, he vented to the drama teacher: “I began to tell her what happened, and I got the point where I was going to call him a f**, and she stopped me.
“She said something I’ll never forget. ‘How dare you say that as a young Black man. You’re gonna say this about somebody, and discriminate against them in this community? You don’t know what they’re going through. Don’t you ever, ever do that again.’ And I’ve lived by that advice till this day.
“Rather than discriminate against someone because of who they love, or the color of their skin, if I can now help someone, even if it’s one person, going through a difficult time like I did, particularly with my sexuality, then this journey has been worth it,” he added.
